London members, you may want to check this out: http://www.foxpokerclub.com/2012/07/22/bj-tourny-annouce/
London Blackjack Tournament I am surprised that this tournament is announced by Ken Smith in America and not London Colin from well, him in the city of London…lol Colin normally has the finger on the button for anything happening in the UK regarding Blackjack Tournaments. It is short notice for me to enter from Manchester and even if I could get down there no accommodation or hotels would be available because of the Olympics. I hope Colin enters (I will be rooting for him) and then reports back to the site to let us know the score and how it went for him. Andy
Well, as I said, I only saw it the day before Ken's post. That being said, I probably wouldn't have mentioned it any way, because it didn't seem all that enticing (certainly not enough for anyone to make a trip from outside London). On first reading, I came away with the impression that this was going to be a regular, weekly event, but looking at it again I'm not sure if that's the case or if it is just a one-off. (Which would make it even less enticing, as there's a £10 fee to join the club.) If I do go, I'll probably wait until the last day of qualifying (Saturday) and see how the leaderboard looks. A brief synopsis of the rules, as I understand them - A week-long (Mon-Sat, 3pm-6pm) accumulation tournament, with the top five qualifying for the Sunday final. £500 guaranteed prize pool, or 100% of entries. £10 per entry. Just seven hands (both in the accumulation rounds and in the final) 2:1 BJs. Three players needed before a round can start. (So there is the potential to be waiting around for a while if the poker players prove to be uninterested, and also maybe not get as many attempts to qualify as you would like.)
More on the rules On re-reading it looks like you carry forward your qualifying chips to the final table. (Although I'm not 100% sure of this, as it's written slightly ambiguously.) I suppose it would make sense when crafting a tournament for poker players.
London Colin will be there My mate Colin can analyse the London tournament format until the “cows come home” but I bet he will still show up at the casino and enter. Okay I accept that it is not the best tourney to enter. But I think that Colin will be hungry for a live game, travel a couple of miles and have a look in and play. So be honest Colin. Let us know what happens and how you got on. Andy
This sounds a lot like the cruise ship tournaments that were discussed a while back. Those tournaments are usually no limit and, for a single 3 hour window, winning 3 consecutive all-in bets is usually enough to make the final table. As this one is going all week, it will likely take more than that. Perhaps 4 or 5 all-in bets. Colin's strategy of waiting until the final day to see the leader board is a good one. Folks tend to focus on the bottom few positions, so shooting for the middle, or better, would be appropriate. Once again, max (or all-in) bets are the order of the day. The exception might be if you get close enough to your goal that a progression will get you there. If you haven't reached you goal by the final hand, then a max or all-in bet is again the way to go, especially if you get to carry your chips forward.
I missed off the betting limits from my synopsis. It's not no-limit in this case - BR 1000. Max 500. Min 25. The only problem with leaving it late is that there may not be (m)any opportunities to enter, given that a round wont be started until there are at least three players waiting.
I don't believe that this will be a problem on a Saturday afternoon, unless this particular casino is not busy on weekends. I've found that passers-by are often curious about what's going on and, with the low entry fee, it's pretty easy to talk them into sitting down. The table will look like a normal empty table which, in itself, is usually enough to draw people over who are looking for a seat. However, if things are slow, then you can lower your goal and focus on making the leaderboard in a lower position, which could make things easier.
It's not a casino, though; it's a poker club. I've never been, so I don't know if they normally have any BJ or other casino table games, or how much action the poker players generally give them if they do.
